These Are The Best Alternative Songs To Listen To This X-Mas

It is approaching x-mas. You may have already heard your first Christmas song on the radio. It’s the time of year when all the old classics will be rolled out, Band-Aid, Shakin’ Stevens and of course the classic Fairy-tale of New York. However, if you delve a bit deeper there are actually some cracking Christmas tunes you may not have heard. These are the marginally less played Christmas belters to check out this winter.

Alien For Christmas – fountains of Wayne

Do you remember when it was the nineties and everyone was watching the x-files and being abducted by aliens and stuff? Those were good times weren’t they? Cashing in on the 90’s UFO crazy fountains of Wayne’s second biggest hit was this catchy Chrimbo cracker about just wanting an alien for Christmas. How this wasn’t used on the soundtrack to the movie Paul is beyond us.

Little Bit of Christmas in the air – Scouting for girls

The catchy pop outfit is renowned for their repetitive hooks that never fail to get you singing along and their Christmas effort is no different. The beautiful melody and classy use of bells make this a Christmas classic and with gorgeous lyrics like “your smile warms me like central heating,” it really does bring the spirit of love at Christmas time to your ears.

God rest ye merry gentleman – Barenaked ladies

If you are unfamiliar with this Canadian pop quartet (previously quintet) they are well worth getting familiar with! Perhaps most famous in the UK for their chart hit “One Week”. That only reached number five but got a wealth of airplay. They are a superb pop/comedy band and among their resume is an album entitled Barenaked For The Holidays. The album contains a wealth of Christmas and Hanukah songs but this is arguably their best.

Unlikely Christmas number ones

Christmas isn’t just about songs that celebrate the festive period. If you are perusing the music channels this winter you will no doubt come along these classic Christmas number ones that really had very little to do with reindeer, stockings or mummy kissing Santa.

The JCB song – Nizlopi

Okay so technically it was number 2 on Christmas day. (It was number one the week before) but this is before they added downloads and all that jazz. That year it was actually Shayne Ward’s “that’s my goal” at number one, but that song is nowhere near cool enough to make the list. The JCB song is! The anthemic pop ballad. So much more than a novelty song (unlike you Mr Blobby!) it has surprising depth dealing with the issue of bullying.

Mad world – Gary Jules

This classic remake of the Tears for Fears song took the original and made it better. This song featured in Microsoft’s advertising for the original Gears of War game and featured in the third game as an Easter Egg. As well as this it appeared in the soundtrack to cult classic Donnie Darko. It may be sombre but if you fancy something a little chilled out this holiday season this is the way to go.

Killing in the name of – Rage against the machine

After four years of X-factor and Pop Idol dominating the Christmas number one spot, people became tired! Tired of clichéd pop-fodder taking that coveted spot. The reaction was dramatic when the people of the United Kingdom downloaded in force to get something different into that number one spot and their choice was angry metal, activist classic “Killing in the name of” there is something so very festive about yelling “f*** you I won’t do what you tell me” at the top of your lungs!